The miserable life of Ethiopians is replete with facts such as:
Ethiopian girl looks for food at a city dump in Addis Ababa
Ethiopia is ranked at 210th out of a total of 210 countries.
That Ethiopia by any measure is the 2nd poorest nation in the world.
That it is at the bottom of the list of the three weighed indicators of well-being.
That 64.9% of school children are not enrolled.
In health, child mortality, it stands at 38%.
85.7% lack electricity.
54% do not get any clean water.
89.5% do not have any cooking oil.
It has one of the smallest economies in Africa inspite of its population, accounting only for the continent’s 1% National domestic product.
90% of the nation’s 77 million people live below the poverty line (Getachew Begashaw, “Acute Poverty amidst “Double Digit Economic Growth”: Contradiction in Terms, Addis Voice, 2010)
Yet the regime is daring us, when it has selected Boston and Los Angeles as cities in which to display its vacuous new five-year plan.
The gruesome facts above should have been attended to twenty years ago, and by now nine of the points above could have been reduced to at least one half and yet twenty years later Ethiopians are still saddled with this primitive existence unfit for animals. The Prime Minister is more concerned to clean his legacy in four more years and fool the Ethiopian people, again and shamelessly with false promises.
Which transformational strategy is going to make Ethiopia free of famine in five years, when the regime had twenty long years of attending to them slowly, carefully and intelligently? Instead, the reality on the ground can be changed only by a total regime change, consisting of new faces, new thoughts, and new transformational strategies.
The new plan may aim at embarrassing the Diaspora opposition but the regime forgets that it will only embarrass itself when its plans are logically attacked by those who know and by those who see through the aim of the caravan of another five year plan and will subject it to a vigorous scrutiny and demand that the regime gives a regime change a real chance for the love and respect of the Ethiopian people.
The new plan does not address the existential and political rights of the people, the violation of their dignities and economic opportunities. Only a civilized uprising can change the reality on the ground, with a new vision of the Ethiopian person, a new political party and most importantly replacing ethnocracy with Ethiopianity.
Two weeks ago, Ethiopia’s khat-addicted tyrant Meles Zenawi sent a 35-member high level delegation to North America to promote his new gimmick, “Growth and Transformation Plan” “Grand Theft Plan” (GTP). The dictator who cannot stay one week in power without foreign aid has spent close to a million dollars for the 14-city tour in the U.S. and Canada involving 35 government officials and the 10 “journalists” who accompanied. In every city they visited, the delegates were confronted by protesters, and in Washington DC and Los Angeles, they were forced to cancel their meetings. The tour was a major public relations disaster for the decayed regime.
The two senior TPLF members, Berhane Gebrekirstos and Arkebe Equbai, who led the delegation were particularly shaken by the intensity of the protests and accused Girma Birru and other non-TPLF diplomats of not doing enough preparations. It is now rumored that Girma’s days as Woyanne ambassador to the U.S. are numbered.
Girma and the other puppet diplomats are in a quandary since they have little say to begin with. It is the TPLF cadres at the embassies who are the decision makers. In Girma’s case, he reports to Wahde Belay, a TPLF cadre whose official position is head of public relations, but in reality he is the real ambassador who gives orders to Girma and every one at the embassy.
Just a few months ago and for 20 years before that, Meles Zenawi and his ethnic apartheid junta have been taking the side of Egypt when it comes to Abay (Nile River). In fact, shortly after Meles came to power in 1991 with the help of Egypt, he flew to Cairo to sign a secret agreement with Mubarak (see here) that strips Ethiopia’s claim.
(Updated with some corrections)
1) As of August 22, 2010, 7 months ago, EEPCO’s 5-year-plan did not include Nile River, according to an EEPCO official (read here).
2) When the north Africa and Middle East popular uprisings broke out, the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPC) revised its 5-year plan to include Nile basin projects as part of the Woyanne so-called “Growth and Transformation Plan” (GTP). (see here)
This is one more proof that Meles and his propaganda chief Bereket Simon concocted the Abay dam idea in a desperate attempt to divert the public attention from saying BEKA (enough) to 20 years of dictatorship and misrule. The people of Ethiopia have had enough of Meles-Bereket’s lies for the past 20 years. What we Ethiopians need is freedom, not fake plans by a gang of proven thieves, rapists and murderers. For Ethiopians trusting the Nile issue with Meles is like some one trusting his daughter with a rapist. (see EEPC’s five-year-plan here. It doesn’t mention Abay.)
In a debate with a Woyanne cadre on VOA, Tamagne Beyene does an effective job of countering Meles Zenawi’s new propaganda campaign that is centered around a plan to build a massive dam along the Nile River. Except for some gullible individuals and {www:fence-sitter}s, most Ethiopians understand that Meles is talking about building a dam not for the good of Ethiopia, but in order to divert the public’s attention from his regime’s 20 years of disastrous rule. Listen the debate below:
For the past 13 years, the Woyanes have become so {www:predictable} when they are in a political quagmire. The recent political uprising in the Middle East and in the Northern part of Africa has Zenawi’s regime so concerned creating political diversion that is further from the reality was crucial in an attempt to {www:engross} mainly the people of Ethiopia and, if anyone is listening, the rest of the world.
Of course, Zenawi’s regime has no respect for what his own citizens think. The latest political stint is pretty much staged for the donors he can’t afford to upset since his survival is depending on what these donors think of him. One must keep in mind that the regime is so terrified of the potential up rise and measures to squash it must be justified ahead of time. One must also keep in mind that the regime is pretty good at taking survival measures since it has no principle of fundamental politics to lean on. It is that lack of core of principle the regime is suffering from that will ultimately facilitate its demise. The lack of principle of fundamental politics is a recipe for disaster as it has been witnessed in the past. The regime in Ethiopia is no different than the others with same deficiencies; however, what makes this regime unique is the fact that it receives unwavering support from the West for its unique ability of providing what the West needs. Perhaps, the West deserves share of the blame. In addition, the West needs to evaluate its policy towards the regime in Ethiopia and be on the right side of history, which ultimately benefits the West.
As mentioned above, the latest political stints by the regime were targeting two main elements: national security and economic growth. These two elements were brought to the surface with the assumption that they would create the type of political distraction the regime was hoping for. Unfortunately for the regime, any political stint comes with its own price.
National security:
In the name of national security, the regime was forced to bring Eritrea in this equation with the assumption that any mention of “a threat from Eritrea” will galvanize the nation. This may be true in 1998 -2000. Today, Ethiopians are more educated of what had transpired since the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea broke out. Moreover, Ethiopians are aware of the fact that legally, Eritrea had won the border issue fair and square. The 2002 decision by Hague took the air out of those who were beating the war drum to recover access to the sea. Though the regime in Ethiopia is not officially advocating the return of Assab, the thought process is that by creating the possibility of waging war with Eritrea, potential political capital could be gained, and will ultimately conciliate the anticipated potential threat from civil disobedience that is similar to what had transpired in the Middle East and North Africa. To the regime’s disappointment, the reaction from the vast majority of Ethiopians, including those in Diaspora was extremely negative of the war monger attitude of the regime.
Every time the regime in Ethiopia chooses to show its arrogance about its military superiority it admits its weakness ignorantly. Back in 2000 after the war was over and crowning itself as a winner, the regime couldn’t manage to hide how terrified it was of the strength of Eritrea’s military capacity. It was for that valid reason the regime asked guarantee from the West and the institutions that were involved in bringing peace between these two countries. The latest military bravado, from the regime’s Prime Minister, to invade Eritrea was also a message to the opposition groups who are currently waging internal war with the regime. This message was spawned out of fear.
The Grand Millennium Dam:
The regime’s infatuation to building a dam has been a discussion for quite a while. However, the magnitude of this project is so {www:humongous} some doubt the project would be feasible anytime soon due to financial reasons. The regime is banking on the west to assume the bulk of the financial responsibility. In addition, the regime is also taking advantage of this thrill-seeking project as way of communicating with the Diaspora and enticing them with potential investment opportunity hoping to gain political capital. Again, this also failed miserably as it became evident all over the United States where the regime tried to hold these meetings with the Diaspora this past weekend.
Given the regime’s past record, major projects such as the grand millennium dam were used to divert the political attention of the people of Ethiopia from war, economic and political crisis. In 1999, the regime boasted that “merkato” was supposedly to be bought by a Malaysian company for Six billion dollars. During that period of time, the regime also bragged about a 1.7 billion dollars investment on gas pipeline project connecting Ethiopia and Sudan. Of course, no one forgets the empty promises the regime was making about exporting power to Africa while the city of Addis Ababa was suffering from power shortage just about every other day.
Last,
As mentioned above, the political reverberation the regime in Ethiopia has created in the name of “national security” and “Economic growth” has produced no political dividend. Oddly, the regime bankrupted politically on both elements. The war drum against Eritrea was rejected by Ethiopians, which exposed the regime’s vulnerability should these two countries confront each other militarily. Furthermore, the regime credibility in front of the International community (those who matter) will further be damaged. The “economic growth” fiasco that was supposedly to be used as a conduit to establish a relationship with Diaspora with the hope to capitalize politically proved to be a disaster. If anything, this political miscalculation by the regime gives the Diaspora the energy it was looking for. One doesn’t anticipate the regime to try to coddling again with the Diaspora any time soon; however, one will not rule out this regime’s possible war adventure against Eritrea as desperate times call for desperate measures. The Weyanes are indeed desperate.
